Among the industries with the largest job gains last month, health care added 45,000 jobs and employment in food and drinking establishments rose by 38,000. Construction gained 30,000 jobs, and manufacturing jobs increased by 25,000.

Today's Labor Department report was in line with most economists' forecasts and other recent data pointing to steady, if not stellar, improvement in the job market.

Payroll processor ADP on Thursday said its monthly survey found private employers added 215,000 jobs last month, far more than expected. And outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said announced job cuts in December fell 43% from November to the second-lowest monthly total of the year.

Initial jobless claims for the past week did jump, but analysts pointed out they're often distorted by year-end holidays. The four-week moving average - which smooths out weekly distortions - was little changed.

The last monthly data on the 2012 job market enhances the picture of an economy still healing from the deep recession that began five years ago last month and ended in mid-2009.

The number of people out of work for 27 weeks or more was roughly unchanged at 4.8 million last month and accounted for just over 39% of the unemployed.

For the past two years, the U.S. has gained an average 153,000 jobs a month. Economists say the number should be twice that to keep up with population growth and support a healthy economy.

The unemployment rate did fall the past year - from 8.5% in December 2011 - but some of that improvement has come from people leaving the labor force. Some of them retired and some went back to school. But when jobless workers stop looking for jobs, they're no longer counted as unemployed.

Since the recession's official end, the number of Americans 16 and over who aren't in the labor force - meaning they're either employed or seeking employment - has grown by about 8 million.